The last of the Red French Wine

Bonjour everyone.

We are still in France, in a small (well smallish) town called Mandelieu La Napoule, at a campsite called Plateau des Chasses.  It has a pool, which is very important when travelling with children and the temperature is reaching the late 30's everyday.  We have a great campsite in the shade in a private little nook at the end of a lane.  There is probably 100 plus sites at this campsite and I do believe they all full!

Kathryn is making friends with little girls, some of whom actually speak a wee bit of English which is fabulous.  Dylan is struggling with the heat a bit, and even though we are applying lots of lotion he is white as a sheet and burns easily.  He and Nik are bonding really well and its lovely to watch them jump into the pool at the deep end (way over Dylan's head, actually its over mine too) doing dive bombs etc.  Dylan now realises he can swim to the edge of the pool from the middle all by himself.  His water confidence has increased so much thanks to Nik.  Kathryn, our little fish anyway, has figured out that she can sink to the bottom, take a step, push off to the top, take a breathe, and repeat from one end of the pool to the deep end of the pool and back again.  The only problem with these two doing all this is me!  I try to be confident, but my heart stops until they reach the side, I don't say anything as I know I am being over protective, and yet I can't stop the feelings!  I had to buy Kathryn some new togs because the suit I got her prior to leaving is too small!  So Kathyrn looks very french in a tiny bikini!  Will have to get a photo for you.

In the last blog I mentioned that we were going out to find a restaurant that sold escargot, but unfortunately it appears we are too far south as it is a northern speciality.  We will keep looking and asking around until we go to Italy.  We head for Italy on Friday and it will then be difficult for us to get good French wine at a cheap price.

A couple of days ago we drove through Marseille on our way to our current position.  We decided to stop and have a look and lunch.  It was fantastic!  We found markets on the waterfront and bought a few little things like olive oil with chillies, earrings, a tablecloth and Kathryn bought a necklace with matching bracelet.  We then had lunch on across the road from the waterfront.  It was incredibly hot, even though we were under the shade of an umbrella, and it was quite expensive too E107 for the seven of us!

I am loving all the pastries and tarts, oh la la.  However, we are mostly eating cheaply with home made breakfast, lunch and dinners.  Breakfast is cornflakes, tea, coffee, water.  Lunch tends to be fresh baguettes filled with ham/chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce and water.  And dinner can be feast or famine determined by who has made the trip to supermarket!  Two nights ago it was chicken drumsticks, fillet steak, and spicy sausages with salad and a piece of baguette.  Last night was Ravioli from a can with brocolli, mushrooms, courgette, capsicum and a slice of bread, oh and water. Tonight has yet to be decided cos we have no food back at camp!

Sorry about the lack of photos on this blog - Vaughan is back at camp with the kids swimming, and the camera is with him.  My eyes are going a little crossed eyed, its possible I have a headache coming on from the heat, so sorry about any spelling mistakes etc, it must be time for me to go jump in the pool too.

Next time I will try and get the kids to add their own blog.

Lots of love
Karla